Jonathan Rosenthal '06

I was born in Campbellton, New Brunswick, Canada where I lived on a Micmac Indian reservation with my Native American grandparents until I was nine years old. I moved to Reading, Massachusetts, a suburb just north of Boston, to live with my father due to the realization that there were limited educational opportunities on the reservation.

My academic and social experiences at Bowdoin have been nothing short of amazing. With my major being in American Government and an Education minor, public service has been incredibly important to me for the simple fact that my goal in life is to help the underprivileged improve their lives through education. Positive social change is what I want to accomplish with a Bowdoin College degree, not for personal gain, but to help others help themselves.

As it stands today, the United States is the richest nation in the world and our high school graduation rate is approximately 70%. That is astonishing and at the same time disheartening. Every child growing up should be given, at least, an opportunity to graduate from high school with the necessary skills to move onto future endeavors. Every Education course that I've taken at Bowdoin has been great; from the assigned readings, paper topics, small class size and projects, to classroom discussions and professor involvement. Start to finish, the Education Department at Bowdoin does a tremendous job helping their students grow academically with everything that a prestigious liberal arts school has to offer.

My ambition is to attend the John F. Kennedy Graduate School of Government at Harvard University and work towards a public service degree. Teaching is also within the realm of possibility.